Tents are portable shelters made of lightweight, often waterproof, fabrics. Typically, a tent is a collapsible shelter of canvas or other material stretched over and sustained by a frame. Tents are used for camping outdoors or as temporary structures. Tents come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The most popular shape is the dome, or free standing, model. This model is easy to set up and does not require support from tree limbs or other objects.
Most contemporary backpacking tents are free standing, meaning that, when the tent is set up, the entirety of the pole structure for the tent is attached to the tent. This feature permits the erected tent to be lifted by one or more campers, without the tent losing its shape. A rain fly may extend over the pole structure of the tent, and may be attached to the tent or may be staked to the ground. The campers may also stake the tent itself to the ground.
For many free standing tent structures, long poles are used that are flexible and that are extended between opposite corners of the tent. These poles are bent into arcs so that the ends can be attached to the tent corners or elsewhere along the outside edges of the floor of the tent. The fabric of the tent is attached along the arcs, such as by loops, hooks, or sleeves. The ends of the poles that are attached to the corners of the tent (or alternatively are attached at the edges of the floor of the tent), coupled with the attachment of the walls and the roof of the tent to the central portion of the poles puts the tent fabric in tension, causing the tent fabric to take structure. After all of the poles are put in place, the tent fabric is tensioned to form the free standing tent structure.
Although the free standing tents work well for their intended purpose, the attachment of the poles to such structures have had associated problems. Particularly, the poles are often attached to a ring that may have additional functions, such as permitting attachment of tent stakes and/or a rain fly for the tent. The tension in the poles often locks the ring in place, and limits the flexibility, and therefore the use, of such a ring. In addition, the pole end may extend across the ring, and therefore may block some uses of the ring.